Geneva -- A senior Chinese official has strongly criticized as ineffective and counterproductive to the multilateral Doha round negotiations a U.S. effort to extract more market access concessions from key countries in bilateral meetings.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is getting ready for its 7th ministerial conference, to take place from November 30 to December 2, 2009 in Geneva. As trade ministers pack their suitcases, a few of them must be asking questions about the value of the trip. More than a year after the July 2008 mini-ministerial collapsed in acrimony, the Doha talks have not moved an inch – except to go backwards, according to some developing country representatives.

Monday 30 November marks the 10th anniversary of the Battle in Seattle, the day in 1999 when 100,000 protesters took to the streets and prevented the World Trade Organisation from launching its millennium round of free trade talks. The WTO is marking the occasion with another ministerial summit, and is understandably nervous – not because it fears another spectacular uprising (the summit is being held in genteel Geneva) but because the future of the WTO as a credible institution once again hangs in the balance.

Eleven days before the fifteenth Conference of the Parties under the United Nations’ Climate Change Convention that will be held in Copenhagen between the 7th and the 18th of December, an issue which remains controversial is the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) between the European Union and the Indonesian government, designed to support trade liberalisation between the two region as well as increase cooperation in the mitigation of climate change, in part through the provision of 550 million Euros of funding.

The Senate Finance Committee did not vote on the nominations of Michael Punke to be Deputy U.S. Trade Representative and Islam Siddiqui to be chief agriculture negotiator at USTR on Saturday, November 21.

The much hyped Delhi mini-ministerial ended today with most developing
country delegates saying that it was business as usual with negotiations
going back to Geneva and Chairs of the Negotiating Committees of the Doha
Round. However, Indian Commerce Minister Sharma summarized the meeting by
saying that both the G20 and the G33, "were of the view that the texts of
December 2008 must form the basis of future work."

A group of 125 non-governmental organisations from 50 countries is calling on the governments participating in the mini-ministerial trade talks in India over the next two days to reject the further liberalisation of food and rather promote policies that will achieve food security and rural development and safeguard farmers’ livelihoods.
The organisations, of which 13 are in Africa, argue in a letter to the 36 countries attending the mini-ministerial meeting that the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) policies have resulted in "a failed global agricultural system including extremely volatile commodities markets, a lack of global access to nutritious and affordable food, an increase in hunger, and the erosion of farmers’ incomes.

As experts dissect the collapse of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Doha
round of global trade talks to explain its causes and effects, many are
missing how it signals a shift in the sensibilities of people everywhere to
end of the era of global free trade and renew government’s rightful role in
regulating commerce, especially in the critical areas of fuel, food, and
finance.

There is a rather odd interview Anand Sharma has given to Reuters. He is off to Washington and the interview comes just before the visit. Part of the interview is about India being keen to break the deadlock in WTO negotiations.

In his special address to the Cairns group, in Bali today, Shri Anand Sharma, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry has reiterated the Indian commitment to the successful conclusion of the Doha process through a constructive engagement.